Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - CHOOSE YOUR HARD | Best Motivational Speeches | Wake Up Positive

Episode Date: October 6, 2023

Making a change is hard. Staying the same is hard. Choose your hard....

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all on one device. Win the tech search for business PCs at Lenovo.com. The most important promises are the ones you make to yourself. Of all the people on planet Earth, it's most critical that you believe you. That when you commit, you show up, when you make plans, you follow through. When you tell yourself you'll do something,

you actually do it. Here's what's interesting. Being that this is, I believe the North Star, I'm consistently chasing down this standard, right, trying to be better and better and better following through, as I clearly think we all should, but keeping promises to yourself is different than keeping promises to others. When you let other people down, especially those close to you, you feel the social repercussions. And for human beings, negative social repercussions are painful.

We care greatly about our reputation. Don't want to let us. others down don't want to be known as the person who doesn't show up and that's incentive enough to push us towards following through with others but with yourself where do the repercussions go what are the consequences you tell yourself today is the day I'm starting beginning trying something new and then you don't there's no phone call with someone on the other end saying, hey, where were you? Hey, you promised. Hey, you owed me this. No, when we break promises to ourselves, it seems like the situation after maybe a second or two

of disappointment just floats away into the ether. It feels as though there is no substantial cost. But I actually think those broken promises stick around. I think we wear them, we feel them, we see them when we look in the mirror. And sure, maybe there isn't that friend or family member staring us down with disappointment in their eyes. But how we see ourselves changes. Every broken promise to yourself reinforces the idea that not having high standards is okay. Every time we let ourselves down, it supports a narrative that being let down is normal, hard for the course.

If you don't show up for you, it begs the question, why should others show up for you? Why should others follow through when you wouldn't even do it for yourself? I've always believed that so many facets of life start internally and are projected out. how you see yourself, treat yourself is the sun around which all that other stuff revolves, right? Like the world will notice and act accordingly. It will conform to the standards you create for you. So let's work on those standards.

Let's make it so there's skin in the game. So that when we break promises to ourselves, say, ah, not today, or, eh, this is good enough for now. that we understand the magnitude of those decisions because they're not insignificant. They're crucial. And sometimes we have to highlight the consequences of what we don't do.

Sometimes we have to make ourselves truly feel the opportunities we let slip away. As though we did actually hold them in the palms of our hands. There is a price to letting yourself down, and perhaps there's power in quantifying it. There's an idea that, you know, life isn't really you versus anyone or anything else. It's you versus you.

And just like you would never let a stranger talk down to you or tear you apart, why would it be okay for you to talk that way to yourself? Right? Like if a friend says he's going to meet you for coffee at 7 a.m. every morning and never, shows up in what world would you keep driving there sitting down waiting brushing it off and you know rinse repeat of course not you look around and go this is crazy I don't deserve this I'm better than this your defenses would kick in you'd make adjustments and just as you shouldn't tolerate it from someone else shouldn't

tolerate it from yourself because you're better than that growth is a game of one identifying what's important two creating small steps that move you in that direction and three following through on those steps right that's the formula being there for yourself when you fall hey get back up right falling is an indicator of progress courage and strength

being there for yourself when you don't want Hey, I know you're tired. I know this doesn't seem fun right now, but you committed and think about how good it's going to feel when you're done. Being there for yourself when you know there's more in you, but that voice in your head is tempting you to pack it all in or call it a day. Hey, it doesn't matter what that voice in your head says. There is no negotiating. You already made up your mind. See, there's power and simplicity. Find a target, aim, shoot. And although life is turbulent, there are certainly highs and lows.

We are at our best when we decide what's important, initiate the journey, and show up. When I set the alarm clock, it can't be about rationalizing sleep. That beeping can't be about X many hours. No, it merely signifies a promise. It cries out, hey, remember what you said right before you closed your eyes last night? Well, time to bring that to life. So sure, that means be careful of the promises you make to yourself. Don't take them lightly.

But once they are etched into the universe, they must be law. And I'm not talking about failure to adapt or try things. I'm not talking about being stubborn. I'm talking about the initial follow-through that precedes all that. Will we do what we said we would do? And I'm not emphasizing making this the standard because life should be some perpetual boot camp, but rather because discipline is freedom. Because when we go to bed at night knowing we set goals and meet them, we see ourselves

as winners. People follow through on who they believe themselves to be. an endless feedback loop. You see yourself as a winner, you carry yourself as a winner, you carry yourself as a winner, and other people see it. They treat you as such, and around, and around it goes. So when you feel like skipping or procrastinating or quitting on yourself, remember that it's not just that immediate moment at stake. It's not a little thing, it's one brushstroke on the mural that is your current reality. It becomes you. And again, you wouldn't let other people talk down to you. So stop doing it to yourself. You wouldn't allow being

stood up by others. So stop doing that to yourself. Become the king or queen of your own empire. Rule over yourself like it all matters because it does. To keep the promises you make to yourself is playing offense. It's essentially building a bridge to the outside world so that you may go shape it, as opposed to merely putting up your hands and living at life's mercy. Never forget how much control you have, how powerful you are, and that you don't need to convince others, you need to convince yourself during the highs, the low, the low, the lows, the ups and the downs, the sun and the rain, you need to be there for you. At night, the sky becomes visible. The darkness, the muting out of everything else allows

the stars to finally shine through, to make their presence known. And during the day, conversely, one cannot see those stars, but the world around him on the world around him on the the ground becomes illuminated. It's a push and pull that seems to work perfectly. And I think there's something poetic about the partnership existing between the big picture goal and the small steps required to bring it to life. As one of my favorite sayings goes,

keeping your head in the clouds and your feet on the ground. Because here's what's interesting. If one were to only look up at the goal, She'd be consistently reminding herself of the ideal without taking the necessary steps to get there. And if one were to only look down at her feet, well, her steps would eventually become aimless. And it's that duality, right, the need to both reassure yourself you can see the stars, as well as use the world around you to pull yourself closer to them that changes things. It's that beautiful dance that has to be maintained.

And this is a balancing act that has certainly been challenging. Sometimes the pendulum swings way too far one way, sometimes way too far the other. But in a perfect world, you want it gravitating towards the center. I remember just starting the YouTube channel almost a decade ago, having, you know, big multi-million subscriber goals, but completely lacking the systems and everyday practices in place that would walk me towards that finish line. I mean, sure, something's better than nothing.

I was working and learning, but the actions simply didn't align with the objective. I had to correct them. And then I've been on the other end as well. But I'd be doing things every day without knowing why. All steps, no goal. that sort of thing occurs when routine takes on a life of its own.

You start doing things because, well, it's what I do. It's what I've always done. You know, this is when one has to look in the mirror and ask the difficult questions. And look, anytime I can squeeze the complexities down into the simple, I try and do that. So with that in mind, my questioning goes like this. What do you want?

Know the answer? Okay, good. Next question. Is what you're doing taking you closer every day to what you want? Asking that question in a serious way

takes a spotlight to one's world. Using my previous metaphor, it shuts the lights off so the North Star becomes visible. And then, right, turns them back on

to ask yourself if you're using your resources to move there. And I've become pretty good at asking myself this question consistently and still I find things that don't belong. That sort of, you know, they hide in plain view.

I have faith that I'll end up exactly where I need to be. But that faith is rooted in my commitment to continually assess, to scrutinize, and adjust. There's very little hope and a substantial amount of trust in my ability to continue forward. There's an idea referred to as the Stockdale Paradox, which states, and this is the first definition I grabbed from Google here,

you must never confuse faith that you'll prevail in the end, which you can never afford to lose, with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be. That's where the tough love thing comes in. Be your biggest fan because no one will believe in you unless you do. It all starts with your trust in yourself to navigate the process and arrive where you must arrive. But it also requires you are your biggest critic.

It means the reason you trust yourself to get there is because you know you won't just sit back and say, I'll win because I believe I'll win. No, you'll win because you will while having a win. your head in the clouds, be brutally pragmatic with the steps you're taking on the ground. You'll win because you're committed to learning and adjusting. What of my favorite epiphanies when I started doing this full time was the realization at a very small scale at first, that, whoa, someone can't fail unless they quit. You can't lose unless you stop.

Impossible, someone might think. Well, no, because when you miss the mark or you fall short, you take a second to understand why, and then you come back to the problem or challenge again, right? This means life is a game of tenacity, of persistence, of commitment. The one who keeps adjusting and coming back is bound to connect the dots eventually, which makes failure the simple decision that, eh, this isn't worth it for me. I don't want to continue adjusting and re-engaging with this. And look, hey, depending on the situation, that may be the move, right?

There have been things in my life where after sufficient trial and error, sufficient data, I've said, this doesn't align with who I am or what I want. I'm going to walk away and pivot to something that does, right? But the key is knowing that it is a decision. To not reach a particular goal is a choice to no longer attack it relentlessly. And so when you feel lost or defeated or even frustrated with the process, try that line of questioning. What do I want?

And is what I'm doing today bringing me there? This allows you to start taking a sledgehammer to the things that don't belong, refining the process. And yeah, sometimes walking away from the things that are no longer in the scope of who you want to be and where you're going. But the power is in knowing, it's in understanding that your footsteps, the little actions of your, you know, your day to day, they are incredibly powerful. But most of all, when you are methodical with them, when they're pointed in the right direction. So pick your stars carefully and own those steps that take you towards them. Failure is not a sickness you catch.

It doesn't fall on your head like a piano in those old cartoons. It's a choice. Meaning, in positive terms, as long as you are committed to learn, re-approach, and repeat, you will find yourself atop the mountain. As long as you're willing to evolve, you will ultimately arrive. Ready to prioritize yourself in the new year? Your skin is a great place to start. Dime Beauty, founded by a master

aesthetician, is more than just a skincare company. With four skin conscious categories, skin care, beauty, body care, and fragrance, Dime offers simple, spa-worthy products that will help you enter 2025 with confidence. Whether you're revitalizing your regimen with nourishing products

or building one from scratch, Dime makes it easy. The work system, our all-in-one best-selling routine, includes a cleanser of your choice, toner, serums, and moisturizers. Taking the guesswork out of skin care for your healthiest, happiest skin yet. Dime's commitment to clean ingredients and sustainable packaging

ensures every product is as gentle on your skin as it is on the planet. With thousands of glowing five-star reviews and a loyal community, the results speak for themselves. Revive your skin and give yourself the routine refresh you deserve by visiting Dime BeautyCo.com. That's dimebeautcom. Your best skin awaits. Hey there, it's Ryan Seacrest for Safeway.

Now through February 25th, stock up on your favorite self-care items and save up to $3. Shop in store or online for items like Old Spice Deodorant, always ultra-thin pads, Gillette Fusion Razors and Refills, Old Spice Total Body Spray, Tampax Pearl, and Gillette Mach 3 Razors and Refills and save up to $3. You won't want to miss out on these deals. Offer ends February 25th. Offers may vary. Restrictions apply.

Visit Safeway.com for more detail. The other day, I heard someone say that they've found. some of the most important things in their life in places where they weren't supposed to find them. Which is interesting to me. One, because that seems to happen a lot. And two, because it's like who creates the parameters around what we're supposed to do? Who sets the rules to begin with? You know, I'm continuously blown away by our tendency to create.

imaginary walls and then live within them to build steel bars around ourselves that separate the now from future opportunity in one of the first videos I ever made I talked about this nagging feeling of discomfort that occurred right after I left the corporate world and started my own business and at that point to call it a business was giving myself a lot of credit I was basically just starting to make videos and put them out on social media. But I would run in the middle of the day, right? That was my thing.

Right through Boston along the Charles River, I loved running. But I couldn't help feeling this guilt. Like I wasn't supposed to. Like I was doing the wrong thing, doing what I was taught not to do. My whole life, I learned that you go to school or work during the day. That's the right thing.

In a decade removed, I've grown and I've learned. I know how crazy it sounds now. But it took me a long time to even enjoy it and not feel like some deviant who was leaving everything he'd worked for up to that point to go and fail spectacularly. The supposed to followed me around like a shadow. Constantly trying to pull me back in.

Freedom to me is separating oneself from this. exact sentiment. It's doing what's best for you, exploring your own worldview, blazing as the saying goes, your own trail, because you'll find very few supposed tos there. I think this is a microcosm of a greater truth. The most important things we do in life, our pivotal moments, our epiphanies are found where we weren't supposed to find them, because what we're supposed to do is very rarely methodically thought out. It's simply the norm. It's marching orders. It's what the crowd is doing. It's what will help us blend in. And it's interesting, as I've pushed further and further into life, I've come to believe that rarely is what's best all one thing or all another. It's working

to find a balance that supports your ideal life trajectory. That balance will lean substantially more one way or another depending on who you are and what's important to you. And so, I'm not suggesting one always needs to be different. Or if something is common, it's wrong. No, thousands of years of evolution and societal stressors have in many ways narrowed down for us what's effective and efficient. It's helped us survive. And to dismiss this outright is obviously counterproductive, but it does explain why any break from these norms physically hurts.

We associate them with survival. And here lies the divide between surviving, which we are supposed to do, and excelling, which is to embark upon a different game altogether. Survival is mitigating risk. Excelling is hunting down the opportunity. Survival is blending in. Excelling is asking, what about me is unique, and how can I? dive into that fully? Survival is not having to innovate on any large scale because the

instructions are clear and laid out for you. Excelling is asking now that I know the rules, how can I bend and maybe even break them so that I can improve my life and the lives of those around me. Now I'll continue with the same example because I know a lot of folks find themselves in a similar situation now. I wasn't supposed to deviate from my previous life trajectory, my education, my career track, my 401k, but I did, and I found something I otherwise would never have, an ability to work on what I enjoy and share that with others. I wasn't supposed to leave home, the Northeast. The most important people in my life live up there. But I found comfort, peace, and new beginnings down here

that I never would have experienced. I wasn't supposed to do many of the things I'm doing today. It was a genuine curiosity and a willingness to chase down what's meaningful, and the beautiful thing is anyone can do that. Every single one of us can detach and depart from the supposed tos in our lives. And, hey, maybe some of them should be there.

Maybe some are adding value and stability that you need and maybe even cherish. But I can promise some of them aren't. And it's worth a look. It's worth thinking about those things. Where can we be a little braver, a little more courageous? Where can we venture outside the scope of what we've subconsciously deemed every day life?

I love the notion that there's always more in, you, you just need to give yourself permission to pursue it. It only makes sense that no journey begins until we give it the green light. The world is yours once you give yourself permission to pursue it. So what are you conceding? What have you accepted as fact that upon further review you might find to be fiction? There's a world of infinite opportunity waiting. for you. Just past your acceptance of the way things are. Just beyond all those supposed to.

I was having dinner not too long ago with a friend of mine. I see him as somewhat of a mentor as well. He's a bit older as a couple decades on me as an entrepreneur. And we were talking about personal development, different ways to invest in yourself, what has the most ROI kind of throwing ideas back and forth. And I started talking about different coaches I've linked up with some of my observations on that. And he jumped right into this story, says Eddie, way back in the day, I paid a huge amount of money to spend the weekend with someone that I admired as an entrepreneur, as a business mind, with the intent to learn about him, his systems, his approach to his business and life,

the whole thing. It was basically an investment into my journey. And he went on to say, I arrived for the weekend. Didn't take me long to feel completely underwhelmed, completely let down. Everything about the guy in his organization was sloppy, nothing seemed to be methodical,

very little was extraordinary or groundbreaking. He said, I couldn't believe it, you know, especially after tens of thousands of dollars spent, right? He spent a lot of money. Couldn't believe that someone, he looked up to it, so little to offer. And I'm sitting there just kind of like wide-eyed. Like, oh, man, and almost instinctively, I said, man, you must have been so angry. And he goes, in this cheerful voice, oh, I wasn't angry at all.

This is a direct quote. He says, it was the best money I've ever spent in my life. I said, oh yeah, how? He says it was that day I learned that, hey, if this clown can do it, if this guy can pull it off, what in the world is stopping me? What's my excuse? Basically said that day has been directly correlated to the success he's had since. Wow.

Right? To which I responded, hey, thank you for the theme to what will become this Monday's YouTube video, right? Because the world needs to hear this message. So many of us need this. There's a tendency to put other people, people we don't know, people we know nothing about, right, on a pedestal, and see ourselves as perpetual outsiders looking in. This notion that they have what I don't. When so often that thing they have is simply, even solely, self-belief.

I know so many competent people. that second-guess themselves out of starting or growth or progress. They see their inadequacies as substantially greater than their strengths. They don't go because they contemplate. They don't speak because they internalize. They don't create because they worry. And it's like if you don't, someone else will. And that someone else could very easily be less suited for the job.

But they did the thing that you wouldn't. The thing, as it turns out, that matters most. They trusted themselves to give it a shot. They understood that nothing starts until one looks in the mirror and believes in the pair of eyes staring back. And I look back and it just all makes perfect sense. I think of the frustration in my parents' faces

when I was a kid and would say, I can't do that. It was the frustration of people who care deeply about me watching me get in my own way. Yes, you can, Eddie, you are the one stopping you. My grandfather is saying everyone puts their pants on one leg at a time. No one is that special. And I think it's a critical reminder. It's not to say that success isn't warranted, that people who have done great things aren't

qualified or talented or haven't earned it. No, not at all. The opposite, in fact. Time plus effort, plus consistency, tends to land people in pretty remarkable places. But it's like no one takes that path or starts that journey unless they see themselves as worthy of it, until they give themselves permission. It makes you wonder how many people are simply too intimidated to lace up their shoes and walk out the front door. Don't even give it the thought. Hey, that's someone else's reality.

I'm confined to this space right here. Think back to the early days of any incredible transformation. I'm going to use a pretty cliche example, but I think it will do a great job of demonstrating my point. Think back to Michael Jordan playing JV basketball in high school, his sophomore year because he didn't make the varsity team. Okay. And at that point, if he was looking at,

for evidence as to why he wasn't quite good enough, there it was. He could have easily found it. Not skilled enough, not quick enough, lacks vision. Certainly, as this coach pointed out, not tall enough, right? What in the world gave him the right, despite his circumstances, to think he was good enough to ultimately play at a high level? Who gave him permission to be that guy? He did. And it's just that. We don't see or think about any of that now. We see the NBA legend, the greatest ever, forgetting that at one point he wasn't.

And his life continuously consisted of crossroads where he had to bet on himself. Times where instead of accepting outcomes that weren't ideal, he sacrificed. He said, I do not accept that. He put in ours, which is a concept that we take for granted, right? People don't sacrifice unless they believe something will come from the blood, sweat, and tears. He believed that it would. You have to believe that it will as well. In fact, your life, if you started right now, made a little dot or mark on the present moment,

and you could live two simultaneous existences at once. one track where you saw yourself as something extraordinary and sought to live that out and the other track where the same you saw greatness as some intimidating larger than life reality reserved for other people the few right you viewed yourself as an outsider average incapable undeserving the difference between where those tracks would end up would be you worlds apart. Again, because humans follow through on who they believe themselves to be. We don't do things unless we believe they're possible. We don't sacrifice unless there's some sort of delayed gratification. We don't climb unless there exists a summit. What makes life both beautiful and

mysterious is that we have to arrive at those outcomes before they exist. As Babe Ruth famously said In that article in the 1940s, it's hard to beat a person who never gives up. And it's hard to beat them because they believe themselves worthy of what they are chasing. So when will you? When will you find yourself worthy of that next level? When will you find yourself worthy of the financial success, the physique, the significant other, growth in your business? When will you let yourself be more or different or happy

or whatever it is that seems just outside the scope of your reality? This world is built by people who understood what they wanted and granted themselves the freedom to pursue it. No superhuman strength required to place greater value on yourself. No record-breaking IQ necessary to live life on your terms just a choice. Truly a decision. And sure it will be strange and awkward at first. You'll feel like an imposter in your own body at times. After all, getting what you've never had means doing what you've never done. But this is par for the course. This is life. And life cannot give you what you don't

ask for. You can't arrive at a destination. You're not traveling. You can't be who you don't believe you're capable of becoming. So know that that aforementioned reflection in the mirror has a depth to it that must be explored. And that what separates immobility from infinity is the understanding that, hey, if it's possible, then it is most definitely possible for me. your skin is a great place to start. Dime Beauty, founded by a master esthetician, is more than just a skincare company. With four skin-conscious categories, skin care, beauty, body care, and fragrance, Dime offers simple, spa-worthy products that will help you enter 2025 with confidence.

Whether you're revitalizing your regimen with nourishing products or building one from scratch, Dime makes it easy. The work system, our all-in-one best-selling routine, includes a cleanser of your choice, toner, serums, and moisturizers, taking the guesswork out of skin care for your healthiest, happiest skin yet. Dime's commitment to clean ingredients and sustainable packaging ensures every product is as gentle on your skin as it is on the planet. With thousands of glowing five-star reviews and a loyal community, the results speak for themselves.

Revive your skin and give yourself the routine refresh you deserve by visiting dimebeautyco.com. That's dimebeautyco.com. Your best skin awaits. It's Ryan Seacrest for Safeway. Now through February 25th, stock up on your favorite self-care items and save up to $3 shop in store or online for items like Old Spice Deodorant, always ultra-thin pads, Gillette Fusion Razors and Refills, Old Spice Total Body Spray, Tampax Pearl, and Gillette Mach 3 Razors and Refills and Save Up to $3. You won't want to miss out on these deals.

Offer ends February 25th. Offers may vary. Restrictions apply. Visit safeway.com for more detail. So during the good times, find gratitude, and during the difficult times, find the opportunity. When you have the answers, when you know, be proud of your knowledge. And when you don't celebrate all the wisdom to come. When the sun is shining, cherish the warmth on your skin, and when it's not,

learn to run in the rain. When you're focused, appreciate the clarity. And when life feels chaotic, embrace the chance to manufacture order. When people come into your life, value the ride that you'll share. And when they leave, take note of all they gave along the way. When you win, reflect back on all the hard work that made it possible.

And when you lose, take in the lessons that even winning can't provide. When things go as planned, revel in your ability to execute. But when your plans and life's plans diverge, remember that some things are simply outside of your control. And now, this may be able to be able to be able to. Now, this moment, is a chance to identify and utilize the things that are in your control. Henry David Thoreau, it's not what you look at, it's what you see. So see the world as you'd like it to be.

Never turning a blind eye to reality, but realizing how much control you have over making reality your own. We are the builders. The world around us merely provides the components and the pieces. And if one were to live as though there were value in every moment, they would inevitably find themselves looking for that value, perhaps even when it was difficult to find, most elusive. When most would hang their heads and walk right by it, I look out my window and see a world that is neither valuable or valueless,

I see a blank canvas in which we are tasked with making that decision. Life is a roller coaster ride. It has ups and downs, the obvious and the unexpected. And while some think nothing of the high points and dwell on the low points, there are an abundance of resources, of beauty, of joy. reserved for those who understand how great the highs are and how valuable the lows. Who take what comes, not as walls to live within, but as parts to assemble. Not as antithetical to their hopes and dreams, but as the very foundation they will build those hopes and dreams upon.

This world is not for you, just as much as it is in time. entirely yours. It calls for you to be that arbiter. For what you decide will inevitably take. Most often, our greatest source of pain comes not from the moment, but what we suspect that moment will mean. It's not the situation, but in how we perceive the situation. And this is an idea. or a concept that I connect pretty directly with fitness or running simply because that's where to me it's most apparent. It screams at me. So being that I run quite a bit, let's dive into that.

Most days when I'm out for a jog or I'm running it strictly for endurance, you know, cardio base, chance to get out there or breathe or reset thing. But then there are times when I say to myself, this run's going to be a little different. It's going to be dedicated to seeing what I'm made of. I'm going all out, going to push. And what I find is I gradually increase my speed over the course of the eight-mile route

is that my brain likes to focus on what's ahead. It becomes fixated on how much is to come, consistently warning me about the distance yet to be traveled and asking whether I have enough left in the tank to get there. It's most extreme in the last mile or so. When my body is most exhausted, when I'm pushing as hard as I possibly can, it's a straight shot.

I'm looking up at the road ahead. My eyes are constantly reminding my brain that I'm not yet done, that there's more. Creating an association between more road and more hurt. in a way, creating a little cycle of panic that sometimes appears and hangs out as I'm simultaneously talking myself out of slowing down. Now is not the time to pump the brakes. I've come too far and the finish line is so close.

But it eventually dawned on me that while the adversity contained in this last stretch of the run is difficult, it's the idea that more weights ahead. That's what hurts the most. It's not the body, but the internal voice that's creating the discomfort. In fact, I bet I could run for hours and hours and hours at this speed if it were a life or death situation. If I had to, it's not the task laid out before me. it's my perception. And so this little line

has helped me rethink and readjust my approach. Not just in situations like this, or when doing interval training or working out, but when trying to do everything else associated with my life. Grow my business, build a brand, nurture relationships, push boundaries in every other. any other aspect of what I do.

Three words. Stay within yourself. It goes to the idea that your job is so incredibly simple that it's almost insulted. Put one foot in front of the other. Sure, look up so you know where you're going. But you don't need to analyze or interpret or dissect. There's no gap between there and here, then and now.

There is only this moment. And so step again and again and again. When the brain starts thinking about how much is left to go, I've betrayed the mantra. Nothing external is allowed. Stay within yourself. You have a job to do and you're capable, beyond capable of doing it. But the external must be kept out. The distraction must be kept at bay.

And sometimes when you get it right, you hit this stride, this pace that is equivalent to flying, a rhythm that's unparalleled. Stay within yourself. step by step, the air making its way into your lungs and then exhaled back out into the world when you simplify life down in such a way. Seemingly large things are exposed for what they really are, a mere commitment to do the little things consistently. It's funny to look back on all the places I've run over the years and identify or match the geography with the lesson. The routes with the epiphanies, the maps forever entwined in my life, what they gave

me and what it meant as I took it all forward into the world. And here we are again, new chapter, new lesson. Then after the shoes come off, the rest of the day commences this little stretch, this last mile plays the role of mentor. Eddie, simplification is everything, it says. The hard thing is not that hard because it's not that big. It's not that complex. Your monsters are self-created. Your hurt isn't a spotlight on the now.

It's pointed at the road ahead. It's asking what if things go wrong? It's asking how long can this be sustained? It's asking whether I have the strength to endure them. this. Every question breathes life into an adversary that has no business existing in my world. They're not helping me get to any finish line. In fact, they're that negative self-talk. I try so hard to mitigate. Except here they are very good at disguising themselves as reality, as just facts of the case, but they are not. They don't belong.

anywhere near me or around me, breathe and step. In fact, I need to deconstruct the world around me down into one word now. And what you find, when you remove the emotion, the excess, is the simplicity of the task at hand. Maybe not easy, but simple, and complexity is the enemy of progress. Right now may not be comfortable, but at least you're operating with clarity.

And that is always enough to simply carry on, to move forward, to stay within yourself. And that's what this is all about, asking the question, where are you letting what's down the road get in the way of what you're doing now? Where are you letting the pain of what's not yet here? the pain of roads not yet traveled, keep you from doing something that is 1,000% in your wheelhouse that you are capable of. See, in this example, it's to breathe and step.

It's to, in a sense, turn the mind off and go into autopilot. Find the pace and hold the pace. But the question is, what is your last mile? What metaphorical race are you running? Have you identified, one, the finish line, and two, what needs to happen right now to get there?

Forget about the gap right now. What is the simple solution? What is required of you in this moment? And perhaps most importantly, what needs to be pushed out and mitigated? It's often true that we stagnate, Not because we don't have the tools or ability, but because we're oversaturated with the wrong things, the wrong routines, the wrong thoughts.

The best way to break through that self-imposed wall. To actually build walls that will prevent complexity from even attempting to rear its ugly head. What is your run, breathe cycle? So stay within your sense. because when you do, you see how strong you are. Stay within yourself because you are the author of your story. Stay within yourself because all you need is now to push forward. Stay within yourself because that is where the power lives.

Stay within yourself because the only way to lose is to let us. lose is to let the external in. Stay within yourself because at some point that road will have been traveled down. The finish line will have been crossed and it will have been precisely your ability to condense it all down into the simple, the ground under your feet that allowed you to get there. Life tried to pull you one thousand different directions. tell you 1,000 different stories, but you pushed it all away. Found that power within the moment and stayed within yourself. I was listening to Alan Watts the other day, and he was referencing a Zen parable,

and he asked this question I thought was pretty cool. He goes, when a flag is flapping in the wind, what's moving? the flag or the wind. The answer, neither. It's the mind that moves. It's how our minds interpret our experiences that create our realities. And the reason this reminder is so important to me,

the reason I don't believe we could ever hear it enough is because keeping that understanding front and center in our lives tells us how powerful we are. Sure, we often can't control the situation. We all know that. But we can always control what this situation means. Every event is open to interpretation. And that's what's so incredible.

Yeah, sometimes it takes a while to get to the value, especially when our minds want to default to the negative or what's missing or what's lost. But if you're willing to look underneath every occurrence is exactly what you need. And so take, for example, something we can all relate to, right? Losing something that truly mattered, that we found meaningful, whether it was a person, a job, an activity, a physical impairment, right?

When asked, what does this change mean, the mind goes loss. It defaults to, I had it, I loved it, and now it's gone. But underneath that, there's a chance to take the pieces of what remains and go down a new path, to find something just as or even more beautiful. The same loss can mark the beginning of an adventure. Is it ideal at first? No, but it's usually not the ideal that prompts our most important change. It's life's turbulence that pushes us to seek out something new.

And I love taking this little trip down memory lane, right? Because, you know, it's the business ventures that fell apart that caused me to look in the mirror and choose to be more. It's the projects that just didn't end up being that good, right, that allowed me to see this journey as a creative one. Or, hey, some projects hit, some don't, but it's not personal, it's a ride, and what an opportunity. It's the breakups I went through. And while, sure, if you were definitely brutal, they gifted me with an opportunity to personally level up, to dial in my understanding of what really matters to me.

I can think of physical setbacks, monetary obstacles, all these things that hurt in the moment. Now, I'm not sure I could have controlled the initial emotive response, right? the human reaction, but learning to ask, well, how can I get better from this? That's a different question. How can one month from now be amazing because of this situation,

regardless of how it feels in the moment? It's not the flag or the wind that moves, it's my mind. So how will I choose to paint the landscape around me? How will I choose to give meaning to the things that will ultimately comprise my reality. That's power. Now I've always felt it easy to conflate,

like finding value in our lives with being happy all the time. But again, we're emotional creatures, and life can be challenging for all of us. I don't think it's possible to be happy all the time. That's not the goal. The true victory is in finding gratitude along the way, in pausing and asking, how can I take this seemingly unfavorable

result and find a way to win from it. Because guess what? The sad truth is most people don't do that. Most people walk right by that stuff. Most people chalk up the L's as L's and leave the good stuff behind. If you know there's a win in everything and you ask that your mind look for it,

the reality you create will be one much different than someone undergoing the exact same circumstances with their eyes closed. Remember, it's the mind that moves. It's you who writes the script, who controls the narrative. And that's not a burden. That's a gift. It's what makes you more powerful than you could ever imagine. Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and nothing says love, like the warmth and comfort of a Miki Gator blanket. Whether it's for your sweetheart, your best friend, or even yourself.

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